More Flu Cases Reported At San Diego Migrant Shelter And More Local News

Speaker 1: 00:00 Good morning. It's May 28th I'm Deb Welsh and you're listening to San Diego news matters. A number of suspected flu cases at a San Diego migrant shelter has more than doubled since county health officials first announced the outbreak last week. KPBS health reporter Susan Murphy tells us sick migrants and their family members are being quarantined in hotels Speaker 2: 00:22 at least 35 men, women and children that a downtown San Diego family migrant shelter are sick with suspected flu cases. One person was hospitalized and released. County officials say 14 of the IHL migrants are being quarantined with their family at downtown hotels and treated with antiviral medications. They say all of the migrants at the San Diego shelter were flown in from border processing centers in Texas where the h one n one flu strain is circulating official, say migrants receive medical exams when they first arrived to the shelter to check for communicable diseases. As an added precaution there now screened every day for flu symptoms such as fevers and congestion. The county will release daily updates of flu cases until the outbreak is over. Susan Murphy Kpbs News. As affordable housing becomes more scarce in San Diego, Speaker 1: 01:12 college students are among the hardest hit by the housing crisis. KPBS reporter Molina's Spitzer says the nonprofit Wesley House is trying to change that Speaker 2: 01:22 Wesley House provides low cost housing and support services to college students. Many first generation students like Alberta Perez Jr need additional help. Better says the financial mentoring, reduced cost housing and access to CalFresh from Wesley House was important to his success at San Diego state. Speaker 3: 01:39 No matter what the obstacle is or no matter where you come from, that doesn't define you. It's not how you started telling you. Speaker 2: 01:48 Finish after four years, living at Wesley House that has graduated and landed his first job. So I'm an aerospace engineer for the Navy, uh, NAV air. I'm a navy civilian. Parris says in the future, he hopes to create scholarships for students like him and he plans to put his parents through stuff. Speaker 3: 02:05 Cool. I don't want them to leave this place, leave this earth without doing what they really wanted to do. Speaker 2: 02:13 He says he can't wait to see the path they choose. Melina Spitzer, KPBS news Speaker 1: 02:19 health clinics be key to getting people who are wary of government surveys to fill out the 2020 census Capitol Public Radio, Sammy Kay or has details. State officials are worried immigrants and particularly Latino residents. We'll skip the census due to deportation fears, especially if a question about citizenship stays in place. Federal dollars are at risk of Californians are under counted. Trusted community organizations including clinics are trying to spread the word that it's safe to fill out the survey. Speaker 4: 02:48 We're going to do an aggressive DOTC campaign in the hardest account. Communities. Speaker 1: 02:54 G O t c means get out the census. That's Jenny Katianne on with ultimate a southern clinic Speaker 5: 03:00 network serving largely Latino patients. They're planning to work census outreach into their regular phone calls. Speaker 4: 03:05 You know, we look forward to seeing you tomorrow at your doctor's appointment. Please bring any prescriptions that you're currently taking. Do you have any questions? Did you receive your senses of form on, you know, in the mail? If so, can you please bring it to your doctor's appointment? Speaker 5: 03:19 Clinics are also considering Spanish language videos and census kiosks in waiting rooms in Sacramento. I'm Sami Kayla Sacramento police are dealing with another egg Speaker 1: 03:28 accusation of police brutality. It comes after the release of video showing officers arresting a 12 year old African American boy capital public radio. Steve Melanie reports Speaker 5: 03:39 video shows police handcuffing the boy on the ground and putting a spit mask over his head. This happened about a month ago in North Sacramento. Police say officers were in the area and saw a security guard chasing the boy. The guard accused the boy of trespassing and asking people to buy things for him at a nearby store. Video of the incident taken by a bystander recently went viral and that prompted the police department this week to release the officer's body. Worn camera footage. Speaker 2: 04:04 Hi always get on me. Speaker 5: 04:12 Sacramento attorney Mark T. Harris is representing the boy in his family. He posted a statement on social media saying his client was doing nothing more than trying to enjoy the benefits of a neighborhood carnival. Speaker 6: 04:22 We will not tolerate our community and particularly our young people being treated in the way this young man was treated. Speaker 5: 04:28 Police say the boy was released to his mother after being cited for battery against a police officer and resisting arrest in a statement. Police chief Daniel Hahn, so the officer's appropriately used a spit mask to protect themselves and diffuse the situation. This latest incident comes in the wake of use of force complaints against the department after last year's officer involved shooting death of Stefan Clark in Sacramento. I'm Steve Mill Ne Americans across the country commemorated Memorial Day Monday Speaker 1: 04:55 here in San Diego. KPV As reporter Prius or either visited the side of a special memorial set up by veterans for peace every year since 2003 veterans have created a memorial designed to look like Arlington National Cemetery. The mock headstones display the name of us service men and women from southern California who have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts this year. That memorial was in front of the USS Midway with 288 headstones. Jim Brown, a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, says he feels a sense of duty to read the names of the fallen every memorial day. Speaker 6: 05:34 I think I'll be doing this here the rest of my life. Uh, I mean I just feel driven to do it to honor these people. Speaker 1: 05:41 The memorial also included black headstones to recognize service members who had taken their lives Prius or either k PBS news. Democrats are gearing up for some of the most hotly contested races in San Diego County. Mayor City Council county supervisor will all be on the 2020 ballot. Kpbs Metro reporter Andrew Bowen talked with newly elected county Democratic Party chairman will Rodriguez Kennedy about his election strategy. Speaker 7: 06:10 Well Roger Gets Kennedy. Thanks so much for joining us. The glad to be here. Thank you. So you are 31 year, the youngest chair of the county Democratic Party ever. You are a veteran, you were discharged under. Don't ask, don't tell and uh, you were also homeless for awhile. You lived out of your car. How is all of that lived experience going to inform how you approach this position? My lived experience has in many ways shaped my political views. They've evolved over the years. There was a point when I was a little bit more, there are a lot more conservative than I am now, but it's important because my and my activism comes from a social justice standpoint and that has led me to the Democratic Party. And so it allows me to engage on issues that previous chairs may not have engaged on because I have lived experienced with those issues, particularly on homelessness and housing. Speaker 7: 06:59 I know you've got your sights set on a democratic majority on the county board of supervisors. What do you think, uh, a majority democratic a board would be able to do? What policy issues do you think they could move on? We've already seen that the board has operated significantly differently with Nathan Fletcher on the board. So just imagine what we can do with a democratic majority, but I see that we can do more on housing. I see that we can do more on mental health. Um, I, I think those are important areas that we're going to have to look at. Um, because a lot of the problems that we have regionally are better served when we have better county participation. In the solution to those problems. So the party is looking at basically what are the institutions which have the resources to address the challenges of our time and the county board of supervisors is key to that strategy. Speaker 7: 07:44 I know Sandag is also in your sights, the county transportation agency. Now their board of directors is made up of an elected official from every city in the county. What's your strategy to get more Democrats on that board? I'm probably the first party share to talk about a strategy like the Sandag strategy and really the, in order to change those seats, we have to focus on some of the areas that we, we simply need to do better in. Um, in order to change the makeup of Sandag, we have to help take back the county board of supervisors, but also we have to focus in areas in north county like Vista San Marcos and where we can flip a democratic majorities and change up the makeup of Sandag. It also means that we'll have to focus on unseized in east county that you might not have expected otherwise. Speaker 7: 08:24 Like home where they've just moved to a district election. So it's possible for us to pick up seats there. So the Sandag strategy, since you don't elect anyone to Sandag requires us to focus on the basics, which is city councils and local races that the county Democratic Party is going to increase. It's, it's focused on, um, and that means that some races like in Vista and San Marcos and alcohol and, and even national city, other, other places across the county are going to get more attention from our party and more resources from our party than they might have if we were just focusing on congressional seats or something. Last November, the Democrats picked up a San Diego city council seat in district two, uh, with the election of Jen Campbell. A lot of the messaging in that campaign centered around Trump that, uh, Laurie Zafa Republican, um, was, you know, the same in the same party is Donald Trump. Speaker 7: 09:13 How important really is Donald Trump to a local city council race? And how much is that going to play into your strategy in 2020. The reality is, is that we are in a presidential year, um, we're going to have a very contested democratic primary, which means turn up will be high. And the, the districts that we're targeting, our districts in which Trump is unfavorable. So sometimes in elections where you don't have much information about the elected official at your or candidate that you're voting for, it helps to know what their values are. And the reality is is that Trump's, uh, values do not, are not consistent with the values of San Diegans. My goal is to make sure that that's not the top thing that we're talking about. It's one of you, one of the things we're talking about. But in, in reality, the Di, this Democratic Party is going to be talking about issues, um, which is why we're going to create the first ever county party platform to show what are our values, are, what our issues are, and to lead with those values. Well, Rodriguez Kennedy, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 10:10 Thanks for listening to San Diego News matters. For more KPB as podcasts go to k pbs.org/podcasts.